Violin

My teacher recommended watching these violin videos by Joshua Bell on youtube. I seem to have issues with my violin playing in the sense that it seem to put too much effort in my fingering of notes. He asked me to look at the ease with which Joshua Bell plays his notes. Because I will be limited in my study of violin if I don’t cultivate that ease of playing which will in turn affect my development of intonation and speed.

Looking at these videos, I can see what he means. The ease of playing by Joshua Bell is a pleasure to watch. The only way I can develop this, ironically, is to consciously practice it in. The problem is coming from playing guitar, it is typical for the player to apply a lot more force than on the fretboard to get a clean note. However, it is not so with violin, with the slightest of effort the note can be played on the fretless fingerboard, but it is hard to let go of the muscle memory developed while learning guitar.

Nevertheless, this is a new instrument, a new frontier and ideally I should not let habits that I have acquired playing other instrument negatively effect the study of another instrument. But I think it is quite natural of this happening in the real world. The only thing I can do to mitigate this is practice and more practice. Hopefully, soon I will be able to play the notes with a greater ease and better intonation as I progress on my journey in the study of this fantastic musical instrument.